August 7, 2016

I was asked to provide an update on our home grown players and 25-man squad, so without further ado…

Once the transfer window closes in September, we will be required to notify the Premier League of our 25-man squad.

To summarise the rule, as I do each year, we are able to name a 25-man squad if eight of the players are ‘home grown’. We could name fewer than eight home grown players, but would need to also name fewer than 25 players in our squad — for example, if we only have seven home grown players, we can name a 24-man squad, 6/23, 5/22, etc. A home grown player is defined as follows:

… one who, irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Welsh Football Association for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).

We do not need to name players who are under 21 on our squad list; for the 2016/17 campaign, players considered ‘under 21’ will have been born on or after 1st January 1995.

Since the beginning of last season we have lost three potential ‘home grown’ players (Andros Townsend, Alex Pritchard and Grant Ward) from our squad list. We have added non-home grown players in Vincent Janssen and Victor Wanyama.

Also, since last season, Eric Dier and Nabil Bentaleb have passed the age threshold and will need to be named in the squad (assuming we keep Bentaleb), whereas last year they were simply included in our list of under-21 players.

Our ‘named’ 25-man squad should consist of the following (* = home grown player):

We are then able to select any players who were born on or after 1st January 1995 without needing to register them. This means that any of the following (plus the other first and second year academy scholars) would be available for selection. NB: I have presented them in age order.

As it stands, we have only 23 players that would need to be included in our squad list, eight of whom are home grown players.

Our squad is in a very healthy situation leading up to the end of the transfer window – we could make a further two signings without worrying about having to ‘make space’ for them, or either of them being home grown.

Of course, some further changes are expected. Clinton Njie, Nabil Bentaleb and Nacer Chadli are likely to leave (either on loan or permanently), with other exits possible. Mauricio Pochettino has said that he will be looking to bring more players in too. With this in mind, I will provide a further update towards the end of the transfer window.

One thing to note, I know this is in regards to the PL squad but the CL/EL squad rules differ slightly in two main ways:

1. Under-21 players have to have been registered with the club for any uninterrupted period of
two years otherwise they must be registered. This means Dele will count towards the squad.

2. Instead of 8 homegrown players it is instead 4 “club-trained” and 4 “association-trained” players. At the moment we are fine for this even with Bentaleb’s assumed departure but may be something to watch for.

One question. Do you see CCV getting much game time this season, aside from FA & League cup? Barring injuries, Wimmer will be first choice on rotation. Would it be better to sign an experienced CB that would be “prepared” to sit on bench and send CCV on a PL loan until January?